A Heart That Remembers
by Fire Mistress
Summary: Twenty-three years old Amu Hinamori is now a well-known Shugo Chara guardian working for Easter. But when an evil organization wants to harness the power of the Shugo Chara to create a weapon of mass destruction, Amu is going to need all the help she can get to stop them – including the help of someone whom she hasn't seen in ten years. Iku/Amu


**Title: **A Heart That Remembers

**Author: **Fire Mistress

**Couple: **Amu Hinamori & Ikuto Tsukiyomi

**Rating: **T (PG-13)

**Genre: **Romance/Adventure

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters mentioned here. They rightfully belong to their respective owner. I'm just using them for recreational purposes.

**Summary: **Twenty-three years old Amu Hinamori is now a well-known Shugo Chara guardian working for Easter. But when an evil organization wants to harness the power of the Shugo Chara to create a weapon of mass destruction, Amu is going to need all the help she can get to stop them – including the help of someone whom she hasn't seen in ten years. Iku/Amu

**Comments: **Hi, everyone! I haven't written a story in such a long time, and after re-watching Shugo Chara my imagination has been rekindled! Hope you like my story and comment!

**Chapter 01: **Reunion

"Amu-chan! It's getting late!" complained a tired-looking Ran, as she – along with Su, Miki and Dia – watched Amu work.

Amu, however, didn't hear her. So concentrated was she in her work that she had lost all sense of time. In the past couple of years there has been such a surge in X-Eggs and X-Characters that her work, and those of her comrades, had almost quadrupled. It was as if every child was losing their dreams of their would-be self. To make matters worse, already hatched Shugo Charas has been reported missing. Amu didn't understand, but she knew that something was not right. Granted, the human heart can be weak, which sometimes lead to a heart's egg turning into an X-Egg, but never to the extend that has been happening recently and definitely, never after the child's egg have turn into Shugo Charas.

Worse yet, it wasn't happening just in Japan. According to Lulu, occurrences such as those were also happening in France and other parts of the world. It was a worldwide epidemic and no one knew what or who was causing it. Amu sighed.

"Let's go home, girls. Tomorrow I'm going to ask President Hikaru if he has heard of any new development." Amu couldn't help but to smile as she remembered the once indifferent blonde boy who once also stole children's dreams in search of the embryo – not knowing that what he was looking for all along was his own heart's egg.

How time has passed indeed. This little boy who over-analyzed everything – who never smiled, nor cried nor knew what it was like to care for someone or something – has grown so much in such a short amount of time. Seiyo Academy has been truly good for him! In the last couple of months that she attended there, she had seen him slowly but surely come out of the cocoon he'd built around himself and turn into such a beautiful butterfly. Now the boy was 16-years of age and, although sometimes appearing a little cold and indifferent, he is a far cry from what he used to be.

Amu was truly shocked when, after having graduated from college with a psychology degree and no true motivation to practice it, Hikaru offered her a job in his company. Hikaru knew above all else her love for Shugo Charas, and her love to help those X-Eggs who have lost their way. Because regular humans can't see them, there was nowhere she could work doing what she loved to do– that is, until Hikaru gave her this job.

She had been truly thankful to him. Although it was hard to explain to her parents what she did as a Shugo Chara Guardian, she truly loved her job and she was determine to find the root of this new problem and solve it as soon as possible.

"Sorry girls, I know you are all tired from work and yet I kept you up so long," Amu apologized as they made their way to her apartment.

Winter was soon approaching and the night's air was beginning to turn icy cold. To make matters worse, cold water began to drizzle, signaling the beginning of a coming downpour. Involuntarily, Amu shuttered against the night's air. She looked down and saw Ran, Miki, Su and Dia taking shelter inside her purse. She smiled sweetly and began to walk a bit faster – hoping that she could make it to her destination before it began to really rain.

Amu Hinamori looked at her watch and a small gasp escaped her lips. She had completely forgotten she had promised Tadase to stop by his place to help him with some project he had pending! She was going to have to call him to apologize once she went home or face the possibilities of him being upset at her.

When Tadase and she entered high school, they officially started dating. However, there was always a void in her heart that she couldn't quite explain. She was happy when she started dating the person whom she had admired, but had it truly been love? She didn't know. All she knew was that, in the least expected moments, a thought of a certain someone with bluish hair and eyes would suddenly come and go from her mind and her heart would feel heavy. She didn't understand why. What was it about him that affected her so? Why was it that every time Yoru sent her a picture of him her heart fluttered? Although pictures stopped coming long ago, only the mention of his name had the power to make her lose her cool, if only for a moment. But it's been ten years since she last saw him – eight since she last spoke to him. As a matter of fact, the last time she did speak to him was to tell him that she started dating Tadase. After that, the pictures stopped coming – as well as his calls.

Amu sighed heavily. Thinking about him now is not going to do her heart any good. Besides, she refused to believe that she had any kind of special feelings towards him. That would be absurd! This boy who always teased her and knew exactly which buttons to push to upset her couldn't possible be anything special to her. She remembered that night when he had told her that he liked her to later say that he was only teasing – how upset she had been with him! For a few second she had been taken aback and had actually blushed! Thankfully she recovered quickly and caught on to his teasing before she made a fool of herself.

But those times have long passed and those memories were best kept forgotten. Tadase and she weren't dating anymore, but that didn't mean that she should bring up the past and think of what could've been had he not left her in search of his father. She was content being single and having no one to worry about but her Shugo Charas and herself. She had a nice place of her own, thanks to the generous pay she made working for Hikaru, and she still kept in contact with all her guardian friends from school. What more could she possibly ask for?

Amu Hinamori entered her apartment, the emptiness of it almost overbearing her. What was wrong with her today? Why did she had to come and start thinking about that stray cat all of the sudden? This was entirely his fault! She didn't know why that was, but she sure felt better placing the blame on him. She was fine living by herself with her Shugo Charas, but whenever she thought of him and of the short time he spent living with her when she was in the sixth grade, she felt a bit lonely.

Shaking her head as if to try to shake her thoughts away, Amu made her way to her bedroom. Dia, Su, Miki and Ran looked at her, concerned plainly written in their faces, but with a smile she dismissed their concerns and said, "I'm okay, just tired. Let's go to sleep. Tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us."

Ran, Miki, Su and Dia looked at each other not truly believing their owner, but deciding to drop the subject they went to their eggs and fell asleep. Amu, at seeing her Shugo Charas go inside their eggs, sighed in relief. She hadn't completely lied for she was tired, but she didn't feel like sharing the thoughts that were invading her heart just yet. Amu headed to her window and opened it, allowing the cool air to come in and refresh the usually toasty room. She went into her bathroom, took a hot shower, and changed into her PJs. Deciding that it was too late and she was too tired to call Tadase that night, Amu headed to her bed and fell asleep.

It was such a nice dream, that Amu really didn't feel like waking up. But her stupid alarm told her that if she didn't, she would be late for work and that was something that she refused to allow to happen. Murmuring to herself, Amu sat up on her bed and stretched. Thinking back, she couldn't quite remember what her dream was about, only that it was rudely interrupted by her alarm. Still in a daze, she looked around her room yawning when she suddenly noticed a strange lump under her comforter beside her. Taken aback, Amu quickly jumped off the bed. Slowly and reluctantly, she made her way to the other side of her bed and began unpeeling her comforter to reveal what it was that was hidden underneath. Amu gapped in shock at the sight that met her eyes so early in the morning…

…Ikuto Tsukiyomi…

She couldn't help but let out a scream.

**AN: **Thanks to everyone who read my first chapter! Please review and I hope to see you in part 2!


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